Simply put, Kumu Hina is a portrait of a Hawaiian transgender hula teacher. At least that's how it was advertised. And although this is true, the movie is also so much more.
It's a movie about being true to oneself no matter what. It's a movie about finding love against all odds. It's a crash course on Hawaiian culture which I knew virtually nothing about and which I found fascinating. It's a troubling picture of how that culture was nearly destroyed by the American colonization. It's an uplifting tale about the healing power of teaching which is able to preserve that culture. It's rare for a documentary to touch so many issues and still be as coherent as Kumu Hina is.
There is only one fault I found in the movie: in many scenes Kumu Hina and her husband speak a native language and there are no English subtitles. This made me feel like I'm missing an important part of this fascinating story.
It's a movie about being true to oneself no matter what. It's a movie about finding love against all odds. It's a crash course on Hawaiian culture which I knew virtually nothing about and which I found fascinating. It's a troubling picture of how that culture was nearly destroyed by the American colonization. It's an uplifting tale about the healing power of teaching which is able to preserve that culture. It's rare for a documentary to touch so many issues and still be as coherent as Kumu Hina is.
There is only one fault I found in the movie: in many scenes Kumu Hina and her husband speak a native language and there are no English subtitles. This made me feel like I'm missing an important part of this fascinating story.